Exclusive: Environmental impact assessments are ‘incomplete’, say leaders, and private beach club could harm fragile ecosystems

The feather-shaped namele leaf is so central to Vanuatu it features on the national flag, and now it is being enlisted to protect some of the country's most important forests. But they acknowledge that the leaf and even growing national and international attention to Vatthe's importance are far from enough.

The volcanologist on the island of Vanuatu who walks barefoot over cooled lava fields tells NPR's Don Gonyea how to see nature at its most primeval.